Posts Tagged ‘seth godin’

The Wrong Voice tells you to do things to make money. It says “Make money first, then you will be free to pursue your dreams”. But the Wrong Voice is full of crap.

The Wrong Voice comes from your Lizard Brain, the amygdale. It’s the reptilian part of your brain that is not very intelligent and is only concerned, in a kind of scared little animal way, with surviving in a harsh world.

In order to be butt-kicking superheroes, we need to identify this voice (which Steven Pressfield calls the Resistance) and laugh in his face. We need to learn and understand the power of the following simple quote by Steve Jobs:

“There is no reason not to follow our heart.”

At first glance this may seem like a clichéd line, and indeed “follow your heart” kind of is. But to me the real power that drives this statement is “there is no reason not to…”.

He was being literal – there truly is no actual reason not to follow your heart. There literally is no reason not to sing, write, paint, start your dream business, have a child, restore that old car or whatever.

It can be hard to hear your Right Voice, but it’s always there, patiently urging you to kick massive butt…

I have been absorbed in my work and in my personal missions of late, so much so that I have paid only minimal attention to the news of the world, strange, tragic summer that it’s been.

Today while eating my lunch, I was reading a book, by Seth Godin, his newest one called “Poke the Box
“.

I finished it quickly, feeling quite aware that the problem the book addressed, wasn’t a problem for me. The book addresses the need for people to stand up, take a chance and start things.

I start things all the time, and if I have a problem, it’s how to finish them successfully. I am actually under a self-imposed ban from starting any new projects, to give the existing ones a fighting chance.

So, feeling a bit bored*, I flicked over on my iPhone to read the news and read something about how Libya is in a time of revolution and hundreds if not thousands of people have died in the violence, thousands more injured.

And it struck me how we all have problems that need solving, but they’re not all the same. Some people obviously do need a book to help them gather up the nerve to start something worthwhile. Some people need to find ways to take existing career projects to the next levels.

Meanwhile some people need a chance to live in peace, free from tyranny and fear.

Some challenges are ours to solve, and are not as important as we tend to think they are. Others should not exist, because their very presence is a violation of basic human rights.

I was sitting in my little office in the backyard at about 4:30pm yesterday thinking about wanting to record and that little chicken voice, the one Seth Godin calls the Lizard Brain, was giving me the usual crap:

but you need money; make money then you can relax and make music.

Suddenly I just took on board Godin’s whole message from “Linchpin” (brilliant book, read it). I reached for my iPhone, pressed a button and recorded this:

… and by the time I went to bed I had figured out how to convert the file into something usable and it was online and available worldwide.

OK so it took me about 10 minutes to make the cover, and it’s pretty lame – but I can come back and fix that later.

OK so it’s recorded in one take on a Dictaphone. OK so it’s technically sub-standard – but you know what? I don’t mind.

Listening back to it, I like the way it sounds; it reminds me of a Neil Young song recorded around a campfire back in the 70s. I even like the 20 seconds of nothing at the end (the world needs more quiet moments of nothing between stimuli). Polished recordings have their place but so do quick n’ dirty guerrilla recordings. And meanwhile, the lyrics are exactly perfect for the statement: it’s about contributing – now, while you have the chance – not passively consuming.

OK so just because it is available worldwide doesn’t mean the world cares, but that’s not the point.

The point is more people are going to care than if I don’t record it and, just as importantly, release it (Godin calls it “shipping”). Don’t record and release – move nobody. Record and release (however flawed) – move somebody, somewhere for sure. And as an artist, all I really care about is moving people with my art, making a difference.

So bugger off Lizard Brain, get thee to a nunnery and I’ll call you when I actually need you.

I’m going to record and release a whole album like this over the next week or two; the working title is “Recorded on my iPhone (in defiance of the Lizard Brain)’.